{"id":2503,"date":"2026-04-13T14:28:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:28:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:28:27","slug":"this-is-what-weve-been-talking-about-for-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=2503","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is what we\u2019ve been talking about for months\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5153013\" data-slug-id=\"2766666\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/cmc-predictor\/v2\/cross-icon.png?w=40\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" alt=\"close\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Micah Richards has suggested that the reason behind Arsenal\u2019s recent wobble is that they are not creating enough chances, insisting that they have been reliant on scoring from set-pieces.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday, leaving the door ajar for Manchester City in the title race. Following Saturday\u2019s loss to the Cherries, the Gunners now hold a six-point lead over City, who have a game in hand.<\/p>\n<p><template id=\"template__newsletter-inline-banner-form-combo-widget\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<p><img id=\"subscribe-img\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for the submission!\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mUcU0pvL1yE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">The Rest is Football<\/a><\/em>Richards disagreed that Arsenal are \u2018imploding\u2019 but instead attributed their recent poor performances to inadequate creativity and added that their display against Bournemouth was \u2018very poor\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had this conversation and I feel like I repeat myself all the time, Arsenal are not creating enough chances,\u201d Richards said. \u201cThat has been their problem for a while and this is not reactionary; this is what we\u2019ve been talking about for months now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSet-pieces have been getting them over the line. When they get a set-piece, they grow into a game and they have confidence. That is one aspect of it. Yesterday (against Bournemouth), they were very, very poor.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mikel Arteta&#8217;s side are winless in three of their last four matches across all competitions. With only six league games remaining, they face a challenging task as they prepare to face a revitalized Manchester City side in their next Premier League match, which could potentially determine the title.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Gary Lineker agrees with Richards over Arsenal\u2019s lack of creativity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Gary Lineker, who is also a co-host on the podcast, stated that Arsenal completely lacked creativity in their home defeat to Bournemouth. Throughout the encounter, the north London side managed only three shots on target and took 52% possession, a statistic that laid bare their dip in form.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cNothing, did they? No creativity whatsoever,\u201d Lineker added. \u201cDidn\u2019t seem to be any belief. They weren\u2019t even very good defensively, and that has generally\u2026 they\u2019ve been able to be guaranteed that they were pretty strong defensively.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Speaking after the match, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta described the defeat as a \u2018big punch in the face,\u2019 admitting that they performed \u2018extremely badly\u2019. The Spaniard also added that the performance was far from their standards and stressed the need to improve.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen how the Premier League leaders will respond to their latest setback. They will look to end their near misses in the league, having finished runners-up in each of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Thank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tag-cloud\">\n<div class=\"tags-text\">\n<div class=\"scrollable-content-holder  article-padding\">\n<p class=\"article-p  \">Quick Links<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerLeft\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Left \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-left.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<nav id=\"pnProductNav\" class=\"pn-ProductNav\">\n<\/nav>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerRight\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Right \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-right.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p>More from Sportskeeda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Ezekiel Olamide<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Micah Richards has suggested that the reason behind Arsenal\u2019s recent wobble is that they are<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}